How To Hire Outsourced Developers
donnfelker.com
How To Hire Outsourced Developers
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Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#2"Cut anyone who’s English (or whatever your chosen 5/5 language is) is terrible and very difficult to read"
Oh the irony!
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#3"Cut anyone who’s English (or whatever your chosen 5/5 language is) is terrible and very difficult to read" Oh the irony!
maybe it was intended? lol
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#4Do people go through this much to hire from oDesk?
A while back I would just hire 3 people for the same project. One would always stand out pretty early and I would stick with them after the first week. After a few projects I had a list of great people which I still use today.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#5What do people think of the OP's test repo?
https://github.com/donnfelker/example-rails-challenge
This is a sensible test, I guess, but the OP is just satisfied that the devs know basic syntax and conventions? Would it be more productive to ask more open-ended questions...such as, instead of telling exactly what tests they should write, ask them to write tests that verify the system is working.
Hell even if they did it in Minitest, that ability to conceptually prove how systems in Rails work would seem more valuable than knowing RSpec convention
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#6What do people think of the OP's test repo? https://github.com/donnfelker/example-rails-challenge This is a sensible test, I guess, but the OP is just satisfied that the devs know basic syntax and conventions? Would it be more productive to ask more open-ended questions...such as, instead of telling exactly what tests they should write, ask them to write tests that verify the system is working. Hell even if they did…
You could totally do this. I think variation like this are great. I do this all the time. Depends on the type of developer I'm after. I've had advanced challenges/etc. One of my best hires went above and beyond my requirements and stated (in the pull request) that we could do X, Y and Z to improve the code and test coverage. I hired them and they helped me launch a product. But I agree, you can do exactly what you said. Feel free to take this and change it up. :)
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#7Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#8What do people think of the OP's test repo? https://github.com/donnfelker/example-rails-challenge This is a sensible test, I guess, but the OP is just satisfied that the devs know basic syntax and conventions? Would it be more productive to ask more open-ended questions...such as, instead of telling exactly what tests they should write, ask them to write tests that verify the system is working. Hell even if they did…
You could totally do this. I think variation like this are great. I do this all the time. Depends on the type of developer I'm after. I've had advanced challenges/etc. One of my best hires went above and beyond my requirements and stated (in the pull request) that we could do X, Y and Z to improve the code and test coverage. I hired them and they helped me launch a product. But I agree, you can do exactly what you sa…
MiniTest has 'rspec syntax' with 99% less dirty fucking hacks.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#9Is anyone else tired of being assigned homework when applying for jobs? In both this and the author's previous article on hiring, he mentions giving people tasks to complete by a certain deadline as part of the hiring process. For someone that's just starting out as a programmer then maybe that's reasonable, but for those of us that've been in software for years, what's the point?
You wouldn't ask a carpenter to make you a closet before you decide if you want to hire them, you look at the other houses they've created (at least, you should. There's a lot of crappy carpenters out there, and it feels like I've worked with them all). You don't ask your mechanic to change your oil for free, and then MAYBE you'll let them fix your car. So why is this just the status quo for software developers now? I have a job and family, why the hell would I want to spend my free time jumping through hoops for you when you could easily look at all the work I've already done?
I dunno, just my $0.02. I've been asked to do a lot of dumb programming challenges before job interviews, and I'm over it. I'm a professional and my time is valuable, why would I want to waste it figuring out how many ways you can turn a string of numbers into math problems?
/rant. Whew.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#10What do people think of the OP's test repo? https://github.com/donnfelker/example-rails-challenge This is a sensible test, I guess, but the OP is just satisfied that the devs know basic syntax and conventions? Would it be more productive to ask more open-ended questions...such as, instead of telling exactly what tests they should write, ask them to write tests that verify the system is working. Hell even if they did…
Personally, I'd probably do it more like the author did. Not that Minitest (or others) is better or worse than RSpec, but rather RSpec is what I have experience with and if I were going to take over the project for whatever reason, I'd much rather have things already in the state I'm familiar with.